Oh,
wonderful July! Fireworks, barbecues, and community parties welcome this hot
summer month. How wonderful to be an American and live in the land of the free.
My wife and
I try to instill in our children a taste of the incredible heritage we have as
citizens of the United States of America. That heritage is one to be embraced
and valued. A careful look at our Founding Fathers and their documents reveal
an overwhelming bias toward biblical Christianity.
Fifty-five
delegates attended the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which produced the
Constitution of the United States. The religious sympathies of this core group
of men shaped the foundations of our republic: 28 Episcopalians, eight
Presbyterians, seven Congregationalists, two Lutherans, two Dutch Reformed, two
Methodists, two Roman Catholics, one unknown, and only three deists. So, 93
percent of the attendees were self-proclaimed Christians.
The American Patriot’s Bible shares, “While much has been written in recent years to try to
dismiss the fact that America was founded upon the biblical principles of
Judeo-Christianity, all the revisionism in the world cannot change the facts.
Anyone who examines the original writings, personal correspondence,
biographies, and public statements of the individuals who were instrumental in
the founding of America will find an abundance of quotations showing the
profound extent to which their thinking and lives were influenced by a
Christian worldview.”
HIGH VIEW OF GOD
America’s Founders shared a high view of the Lord.
U.S. Supreme
Court Chief Justice John Marshall wrote, “With us, Christianity and religion
are identified. It would be strange, indeed, if with such a people our
institutions did not presuppose Christianity and did not often refer to it and
exhibit relations with it.” And U.S.
Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story wrote, “One of the beautiful boasts of our
municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law. There
never has been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity
as lying at its foundations.”
STRONG BELIEF IN THE BIBLE
The New
England Primer, America’s first textbook, taught the ABCs to children by
memorizing basic biblical truths and lessons about life: A. In Adam’s fall, we
sinned all. B. Heaven to find, the Bible mind. C. Christ crucified for sinners
died. The Founding Fathers stressed the relationship between a sound education
based upon biblical absolutes and the future of the nation.
Noah Webster
wrote, “The moral principles and precepts found in the Scriptures ought to form
the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws.” In 1791, Benjamin Rush,
signer of the Declaration and Constitution, Surgeon General of the Continental
Army, and leading educator, argued why the Bible should never be removed from
public education: “In contemplating the political institutions of the United
States, I lament that we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and
take so little pains to prevent them.” In his Essays, Literary, Moral &
Philosophical, he wrote, “The Bible, when not read in schools, is seldom
read in any subsequent period of life… [T]he Bible… should be read in our
schools in preference to all other books because it contains the greatest
portion of that kind of knowledge which is calculated to produce private and
public happiness.”
JUDEO-CHRISTIAN ETHICS
Until the
Warren Court of the 1950’s-1960’s, which worked to secularize America, even the
Supreme Court understood that the historical record – as opposed to the modern
progressive bias - overwhelmingly affirms that the United States “is a
Christian nation” (1892 SCOTUS - Justice
David Brewer in Holy Trinity vs. United States). He wrote, “Because of a
general recognition of this truth, the question has seldom been presented to
the courts….”
The Founding
Fathers’ documents shaped the genesis of this nation, springing from a common
understanding, or what we today call “worldview,” of how the Creator designed
life to work. This approach to life is known as the Seven Principles of the
Judeo- Christian Ethic, rooted in values from the Old and New Testaments. 1. The dignity of human life. God made every person in His image,
and thus every human has certain “unalienable rights.”
2. The traditional monogamous
marriage. The
biblical family unit is the basic building block of our society.
3. A national work ethic. Working hard represents dignity, and
our free enterprise system encourages it.
4. The right to a God-centered
education. Our
forefathers intended an education system that taught the Bible, Creationism,
and moral obligation.
5. The Abrahamic Covenant. Covenantal theology understands that
obedience to God yields blessing for a nation or individual.
6. Common decency. America is great when her people
follow the Golden Rule, treating others as they want to be treated.
7. Divinely ordained establishments. God established the home, civil
government, and the church.
The founders
of America understood the constitutions, laws, and agreements of federal and
state governments depended on the acceptance of these basic ethics.
The Left
doggedly tries to rewrite our history, demonize patriotism, and teach people to
remember wrongly. As Christian
parents, may we instead instill in our children a love and respect for our nation.
And may we proudly proclaim, “In God we trust!”
Pictures used by permission from Pixabay.